Youssef Qaradawi Calls For Review Of Global Financial System; Wants U.S. Role Reduced

Islam Online is reporting on a roundtable discussion in which Youssef Qaradawi has called for a “review” of the global financial system and the use of global opinion to reduce U.S. economic influence around the world. According to the report:

Doha-based Islamic scholar Dr Sheikh Yousuf al-Qaradawi yesterday called for a global social justice system, saying that any solution to the current financial crisis would be doomed without considering the role of ethics in managing the world economy. Speaking at a roundtable session organised by the Doha International Centre for Interfaith Dialogue (DICID), Sheikh Qaradawi, who is the chairman of the Dublin-based International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS), said that that financial reforms should review the Western values on which the world economy is based. “One problem of the Western economic system is that it is mainly profit-oriented. It is totally ignoring religion’s role in managing life. But, Islam ordains that economy should be ethics-based and makes the human rather than profit its priority,” he said. “It will be futile if we only focused on reforming the system without reforming the human beings who are currently governed by their greed for profits. Morality should be part of the market and production laws. The worldly laws can not control every thing,” he added.Sheikh Qaradawi described the current situation of the world economy as “unfair”, saying that US is in control of the world’s affairs. “Some study showed that a child in the US is consuming energy as much as 100 children in Bangladesh. It is not unfair that 6% of the world’s population, which is the US population, consumes 40% of the world’s energy.” The scholar called for reviewing the architecture of the current financial system, which he said, was dominated by the US. “It is not fair that one country controls the destiny of the whole world. There is a need to create lobbying groups around the world to pressure for social global justice between countries,” he said.“The US will not easily give up its status a dominating power. We have to create a global public opinion which pressure for correcting the imbalance,” he maintained.

The IOL report went on to identify other participants in the discussion including Ibrahim Oweis, identified as an economics professor at Georgetown University:

Prof Ibrahim Oweis, professor of economics at Georgetown University in Qatar, said greed and fraud were among the causes that triggered the current global recession. “There was a lack of regulations which led to the current situation. Without developing new rules and restrictions, the current financial system would totally collapse.” He raised doubts over the possibility that the US bailout plans will be able to redress the current situation of the US economy. “The crack in the US economy is too wide and too deep to be filled with the proposed rescue plans,” he added.

In March 2001, Dr. Oweis was one of a group of Muslim and Arab American leaders invited to a roundtable?briefing with President Bill Clinton, Egyptian President Hosni? Mubarak, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Egyptian Foreign ?Minister Amr Moussa in the West Wing of the White House ?to discuss Middle East issues. The meeting was said to be the first time in? which both Muslim- and Arab-American community leaders were asked ?by an American president to meet as a group with a visiting head of? state. According to Dr. Oweis’ faculty page at Georgetown University, he is an Associate Professor Emeritus at the Georgetown Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, an academic center with ties to the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood.

The discussion was organized by the Doha International Centre for Interfaith Dialogue (DICID), described as an independent group funded by the government of Qatar. Other participants included Dr Ibrahim al-Naimi, the chairman of the DICID and Dr Ali Moheyddin al-Qarardaghi, professor of Islamic jurisprudence at Qatar University and known to be a close associate of Sheikh Qaradawi. Also sponsoring the discussion was the Earth Mates Dialogue Centre of London whose website indicates is an Islamic environmental group.

Youssef Qaradawi is often referred to here as the most important leader of the global Muslim Brotherhood, an acknowledgement of his role as the de facto spiritual leader of the movement. In 2004, Qaradawi turned down the offer to lead the Egyptian Brotherhood after the death of the Supreme Guide stating only that

..he had consciously decided not to limit his scope of manoeuvre by tying himself ‘any movement which might constrain my actions, even if this is the Muslim Brotherhood under whose umbrella I grew and which I so defended…Would I, at the age of 77, accept what I turned down when I was 49?’

Based in Qatar, Sheikh Qaradawi has reportedly amassed substantial wealth through his role as Shari’ah adviser to many important Islamic banks and funds. He is also considered to be the “spiritual guide” for Hamas and his fatwas in support of suicide bombings against Israeli citizens were instrumental in the development of the phenomenon.